Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos (; born 31 March 1972) is a Chilean-Spanish film director, screenwriter and composer. He has won nine Goya Awards—including Best Director for his 2001 film The Others—and two European Film Awards among other honors; he also accepted an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film on behalf of Spain for The Sea Inside. He has written (or co-written) the screenplays to all seven of his films and composed almost all of their soundtracks.
Early life
Amenábar was born in Santiago, Chile, to a Chilean father, Hugo Ricardo Amenábar, and a Spanish mother, Josefina Cantos. He has both Chilean and Spanish citizenship. His father worked as a technician at General Electric, while his mother decided to stay at home and take care of the children.
In 2008 Amenábar released his next film, called Mists of Time; however he later changed the name to Agora. The film starred big-name actors including Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella. Agora premiered on October 9, 2009, and with a budget of 50 million euros, it was the most expensive Spanish film in history until Society of the Snow.
After a hiatus of almost seven years, Amenábar returned in 2015 with the thriller Regression, starring Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson. The film had its world premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2015, where reviews were lukewarm.
Amenábar is also the composer of the soundtrack of his films, as well as others, such as Butterfly's Tongue directed by José Luis Cuerda and Nobody Knows Anybody directed by Mateo Gil.
Personal life
In 2004, Amenábar came out as gay. On 18 July 2015, he married David Blanco. Their divorce was finalised in 2019. Amenábar was raised Catholic, but later became agnostic and is now atheist.
Filmography
Film
{| class= "wikitable"
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! Year
! Title
! Director
! Writer
! Producer
! Composer
! Notes
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| 1996
| Thesis
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|
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|
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| 1997
| Open Your Eyes
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|rowspan="2"| 1999
| Butterfly's Tongue
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|
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| Nobody Knows Anybody
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| 2001
| The Others
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|
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| 2004
|The Sea Inside
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|
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| Also editor
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| 2009
| Agora
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|
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| 2010
| For the Good of Others
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| 2015
| Regression
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|-
| 2019
| While at War
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|-
|
| The Captive
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|}
Short film
{| class= "wikitable"
|-
! style="width:26px;"| Year
!Title
! Director
! Writer
! Producer
! Composer
! Editor
! Actor
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1991
| La cabeza
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Extraño
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|-
| 1992
| Himenópetro
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Bosco
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|-
|rowspan=2|1993
| En casa de Diego
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|rowspan=2|Also cinematographer
|-
| Antes del beso
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|
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|-
| rowspan=2|1994
| Al lado del Atlas
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|
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|Also sound editor
|-
| Luna
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|
|
|
|
|
| rowspan=2|Camarero
| Also sound
|-
|1995
| Luna
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|
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|
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| Remake of his medium length film Luna (1994)
|-
|1997
| Como se hizo Tesis
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|
|
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|Self
| Documentary Short
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| 1998
| Allanamiento de morada
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| 2004
| El soñador
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| 2015
| Vale
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| rowspan="2"| Advertising short
|-
| 2017
| Danielle
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|
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|}
Television
{| class= "wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Director
! Writer
! Notes
|-
|2021
|La Fortuna
|
|
|Miniseries
|}
References
Further reading
External links
- A monographic article in Spanish about Amenabar's films
- Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
- Alejandro Amenábar, by Santiago Juan-Navarro (Paris: Cinéastes, 2003) (in French)